


The Journey Home

by BeccaAnne814



Series: Steve Rogers x Reader Series [7]
Category: Captain America (Movies), Captain America - All Media Types, Marvel, Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Angst, F/M, Guns, Knives, Mystery, Probably a curse word or two, Suspense, Torture, Violence, endgame spoilers
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-28
Updated: 2019-12-28
Packaged: 2021-02-26 03:27:10
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 18,737
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22000795
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BeccaAnne814/pseuds/BeccaAnne814
Summary: Waking up in a HYDRA facility with no recollection of how you got there was only half of your problem.  Once you escape you’re faced with a reality that leaves your head spinning.  With no idea of how to get home, you’re left with one certainty—there’s only one man that could possibly help you. . .but he’s not exactly the man you remember.
Relationships: Steve Rogers x Reader
Series: Steve Rogers x Reader Series [7]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/774303
Comments: 8
Kudos: 40





	The Journey Home

**Steve Rogers x Reader**

**Summary** – Waking up in a HYDRA facility with no recollection of how you got there was only half of your problem. Once you escape you’re faced with a reality that leaves your head spinning. With no idea of how to get home, you’re left with one certainty—there’s only one man that could possibly help you. . .but he’s not exactly the man you remember.

**Warnings** – Mystery, Suspense, Angst, Knives, Guns, Violence, Major Character Death, Torture, Endgame Spoilers…probably a curse word or two

**Word Count** – 19K

**Notes:** Parts 1 - 9 of 9

** _**Updated December 28, 2019**_ **

_ ** [Masterlist](https://beccaanne814.tumblr.com/post/174989754188/masterlist) ** _

[[MORE]]

She hadn't seen the HYDRA agent sneak up behind her, and she sure as hell hadn't felt anything after he'd slammed the butt of his rifle into the back of her skull. The initial pain had been intense, but she'd been unconscious before she'd had time to truly process what was going on.

When she finally came to again, she'd been tied to a chair in the middle of a bare, grey-walled room that stank of sweat and piss. Her stomach had recoiled from the stench, as well as from the concussion she was almost positive she'd gotten when she'd been caught off guard. Taking deep breaths through her mouth, she tried to will her stomach to settle down. The last thing she needed was the smell of her own vomit on top of the other odors currently permeating throughout the stuffy room.

The sound of rusted metal complaining of misuse alerted her to the fact that someone would be joining her in the bowels of hell. She saw the agent recoil from the stench himself, but it was just a momentary reaction. He quickly composed himself and began to glare at her.

"We can do this the easy way, or the hard way," he explained as he pulled a knife from the sheath at his hip and twisted it so it caught the light from the single bare bulb hanging above her head.

"And which of those ways ends with me walking out of here unharmed?" She knew her snarky attitude was going to be the death of her, but she couldn't stop herself. Steve was always telling her that her smart mouth was going to get her into trouble someday, and she couldn't help but wonder if that day had finally come.

The agent didn't answer, but instead snarled his nose and glared at her some more.

"Someone wake up on the wrong side of the bed this morning?" she asked before she could stop herself. 

He began to laugh. "That's funny."

"Really?" She was a little shocked to have gotten that response from him. She'd assumed he be all stoic as he tortured her for information, but maybe she was wrong. "I've got a whole repertoire of jokes if you're interested."

"Oh, no," he said with an amused shake of his head. "It's only funny because you have no idea where you are."

She glanced around the room and tried to decipher what he meant. What did it matter where she was? This was obviously just another abandoned warehouse HYDRA had commandeered for their nefarious deeds.

He saw her confusion and began to laugh again. "A part of me wants to let you out of here just so I can see the look on your face. . ."

"That sounds like a plan to me," she interrupted with a wink. "Why don't we just skip the whole torture spiel and move onto the you-laughing-at-my-confusion part of this show."

"You have a big mouth. Has anyone ever told you that?"

Her mind instantly went back to Steve. Where was he? Why hadn't he and the rest of the cavalry come to rescue her yet. She knew Tony had tracking devices in all their suits for this very reason, but if they didn't show up soon, she'd be sporting some new battle scars she hadn't asked for.

"It's both a blessing and a curse," she snarked, hoping to keep him more interested in playful banter than whatever he had planned with that knife.

But it seemed as though she'd misjudged him when he started toward her and ran the business end of the blade along her cheek. She felt the warm stickiness of her own blood as it began to ooze down her face.

"You forgot to ask me a question first," she said through clenched teeth.

She hadn't been prepared for the backhanded slap that sent her head snapping to the right. Her vision blurred for a bit and when she was finally able to focus again, there were little stars dancing around her field of vision like in a Looney Toons cartoon.

"Don't worry," he told her with an evil gleam in his eye. "When I'm done with you, you'll be begging to tell me everything you know."

She muttered something under her breath.

"What was that?" he asked as he saw the tears begin to stream down her face. He hadn't been prepared for her to give up so easily, but the less time he spent in the squalid room, the better.

She spoke again, but he still couldn't hear her. Leaning closer, he angled his ear near her mouth so he could understand what she was trying to say.

"You're more stupid than you look," she whispered into his ear just before she threw her head back and then head-butted him as hard as she could.

The pain in her skull threatened to send her back into oblivion, but she pushed down the nausea and tipped the chair over onto it's side. Her captor was busy trying to regain his vision, so she concentrated on reaching for the knife he'd dropped on the floor. Just as her fingers wrapped around the hilt, he started toward her. Using all the strength she had, she forced the chair she was strapped to onto its back and let her own momentum slice the knife held tightly in her hand across his exposed belly.

She watched in horror as all of his internal organs began spilling onto the floor. Blood wasn't something uncommon in her line of work, but the sight—and smell—of body parts not meant to see the light of day was a new experience for her.

His lifeless body thumped to the ground and she held her breath as she waited to see if anyone would rush into the room to try to help him. After a few beats, she realized they must not have the room under surveillance. As quickly as she could, she used the knife she still held in a death grip to cut the ties that bound her to the chair. 

When she was free, she took a moment to rub her wrists and ankles to help get the blood flowing again. She wiped the knife on the uniform of the dead agent to rid it of most of the blood and gore before tiptoeing to the door. Remembering the rusted hinges, she cracked it just enough to squeeze through.

The halls were lit with widely spaced bare bulbs like what had been in the room in which she'd been held, so she tried to keep in the shadows as much as possible as she looked for an exit. Once or twice along the way, she'd encountered a lone agent, but they'd been unprepared for an attack and she'd been able to easily take them out.

Finally reaching an exit, she breathed a sigh of relief, but she knew she wasn't completely out of the woods just yet. The facility looked old and run down, but there'd been too many guards patrolling the halls for it to be completely abandoned. Knowing that she'd most likely encounter a few guards between the building and safety, she resigned herself to stay alert.

Reaching the fence-line that separated the warehouse from the rest of the city, she slipped through and ran as far and as fast as she could. When she'd reached a fairly populated portion of the city, she finally allowed herself to reflect on the past few minutes. The last guard she'd fought had seemed familiar to her, but she couldn't figure out how she would have known him. Something about him had reminded her of Clint. Chalking it up to a former HYDRA sleeper agent Clint had trained before S.H.I.E.L.D. fell, she pushed the déjà vu aside and went in search of a way to communicate with the team.

When she came upon the heart of the city, she experienced another sense of déjà vu. The buildings looked familiar to New York skyline, but there were obvious differences that couldn't be ignored—particularly the twin towers that looked eerily similar to the World Trade Center buildings that had been destroyed almost twenty years prior.

A young woman walked past her, and YN called out for her to stop. "Can I borrow your phone?" She hated asking random strangers to borrow their phone, but it wasn't like she had any money hidden in the cargo pockets of her tactical gear, and odds of her ever finding a payphone were slim to none.

The woman's face morphed into confusion and she answered YN in a language she'd never heard before. Letting the lady go, she took a step back as she tried to figure out where she was. As she leaned against a building, she watched and listened to the people passing by her. She was used to hearing different languages being spoken on the streets of New York, but it seemed as though everyone was speaking the same language, and it wasn't one she knew. It sounded ridiculous even to herself, but she could've sworn it was a mixture of Russian and German.

Moving away from her resting spot, she began to immerse herself in the crowd. She spotted a newsstand at the next corner, so she broke away from the group she'd hidden herself amongst and picked up a paper. The words written on the page were gibberish to her, but the picture on the front page was unmistakable. It was Rhodey in his Iron Patriot suit, but instead of the familiar red, white, and blue, there was a giant HYDRA logo emblazoned across the front.

With her stomach reeling yet again, she finally realized what the HYDRA agent had meant when he'd said he wanted to see the look on her face when she saw where she was. He'd laughed at her joke because it hadn't been him that had woken up on the wrong side of the bed—it had been her.

She had no idea where she was, but one thing was certain—this wasn't her world.

YN slipped beneath the broken fence and edged her way through the shadows to the abandoned building on the outskirts of town where she'd taken up residence. She'd been stuck in HYDRA-land for almost a month with no idea how to get back to her own reality. Since she'd escaped the HYDRA facility where she'd been kept upon arrival, she'd done her best to stay off the grid as much as possible while still working on a plan to get home.

The nest she'd made for herself was situated on the ground floor of the building away from the huge bank of windows that made up the Eastern side. At first glance, it looked like any other abandoned building filled with debris and a thick layer of dust over rusted equipment that lay in broken pieces on the floor. She'd made a path along the walls so as not to disturb the dust and alert anyone curious enough to peek in that someone had recently been in the building.

Once she'd wound her way to the room in which she lived, she shut the door and switched on the small lamp with its bare incandescent bulb to light the small space. Off to the side was a pile of blankets that she used as a bed, and against the back wall was the desk where she worked and made her plans. The dingy room was cramped and stuffy, but for now it was home.

Shrugging off the ratty backpack she'd found in a dumpster a few days after her escape, she dropped it on the desk and wearily sat in the broken chair that creaked with every movement. Every single evening she went out scavenging for information and supplies, and every morning she came back to her hole to work on her plan and sleep until it was time to repeat the process.

She'd learned a lot about this world from newspapers left in trash cans after they'd been discarded, as well as from listening in on people's conversations at bus stops and coffee shops. The basic linguistic skills she'd gained from the S.H.I.E.L.D. Academy had served her well as she quickly learned both the written and spoken versions of the new language. From what she could gather, HYDRA had taken control of this world sometime during the Second World War, and they'd united every country under a police state in which everyone lived in fear. The world had assumed that Germany and Russia were on opposite sides of the war, but they'd been wrong. After HYDRA had fully taken over, the two languages had morphed into one new language to seal their alliance. Thankfully, YN was proficient in both, so learning the hybridized version hadn't taken too long.

In addition to Rhodey, she'd learned that all of her friends were now HYDRA agents under the command of Alexander Pierce. The thought of that man still breathing air anywhere in the universe had her seeing red, and it made her sick to know that his evil agenda had actually come to fruition. 

When she'd first found out Pierce was alive, she'd feared that the Project Insight Helicarriers would take her out within the first few hours, but then she'd realized that he hadn't needed to create them since HYDRA had taken control so long ago. There was no resistance that needed to be squashed—no enemies of the state that posed a significant enough risk to justify the need for such a costly security measure.

The one piece of information that disturbed her the most was learning that Pierce had made a treaty with Thanos. In exchange for the Tesseract and the Time Stone, he'd agreed to leave the Earth alone until he'd collected all six of the Infinity Stones. She wasn't sure if Strange was dead, or if Pierce had managed to bring the Master's of the Mystic Arts over to his side, but after all she'd learned in the last few weeks, either option was a possibility. She just hoped that the Guardians of the Galaxy had been able to keep the Power Stone and the Soul Stone of out of the Mad Titan's hands—or at least until she had a chance to get back to her own reality.

She let out a deep breath and began to sort through the items in her bag. It had been a productive night and she felt as though she was ready to move on to the next part of her plan. As she pulled out each item, she carefully placed it on the desk in nice, neat rows so she could do a proper inventory.

From the construction site a few blocks away, she'd made off with a few blocks of C4 that would come in handy if she needed to blow something up, and a few lengths of rope in case she needed to make a hasty exit from a second or third floor window. She'd also found a box of matches in the desk drawer of the office trailer that had been easily broken into.

Living under a heavily policed regime had given the agents of HYDRA a sense of superiority that made them easy targets for someone like her. They were so used to being feared by the general populace that they assumed no one would dare wage an attack on one of them. She'd been smart when she'd pilfered from them and hadn't used a ounce of force. Instead, she'd relied on her cunning, as well as her proficient pick-pocketing skills. 

As she cataloged the numerous knives, guns, extra ammo, smoke grenades, and the ten million volt taser she'd acquired over the past few nights, a smile spread across her face. She would've loved to have seen the look on their faces once they'd realized someone had dared to steal from them, but it would've been too risky to stick around for the show. She'd just have to be satisfied with the knowledge that she'd be waging war against them using their own weapons.

The last thing she removed from her bag was the map she'd spent the past few weeks perfecting. Her memories of the facility they'd held her in weren't as clear as she would've liked, but she was almost positive she'd be able to find her way back to the room in which she'd been kept.

But it wasn't that particular room that interested her the most. There was another room that was only whispered about when people assumed they were alone. It was told that in the depths of HYDRA's main base of operations there was a room that no one was allowed to enter save Alexander Pierce himself. This room held the key to not only her salvation, but the salvation of the entire world.

HYDRA may have taken over the world eighty-some years ago, and therefore had had no problems recruiting all her friends to their side, but there was one man that would never serve the evil organization as long as he was alive—and if the rumors were true, he was. Her final objective was to find a way back to her own reality, but in order to do that she'd need the one person she trusted the most in the world—the only person that was capable of bringing HYDRA to its knees. . .

Steve Rogers.

It was now or never. YN was more nervous than she'd ever been in her entire life. She'd been on solo missions before, but this was different. Before she'd always had someone on comms as her safety net, but she didn't have that luxury this time around. She was truly on her own, and if her plan didn't go exactly the way she needed it to, she wouldn't make it through the night alive.

The days of recon she'd done on the HYDRA facility had paid off, and she was able to slip under the fence and make her way to the building completely undetected. But that was only the first step of her plan. The second step would be a little more difficult since she hadn't been able to discover the access codes that would allow her to bypass the security system.

As harrowing as steps one and two would be, it was step three that had a cold sweat breaking out all over her body. Step three was finding Steve, and her whole plan depended on her being able to leave the facility with the supersoldier. Her odds of finding him before she was detected were slim to none, and getting them both out alive seemed damn near impossible.

But Steve Rogers was the king of pulling off the impossible.

Hiding in the shadows went against every instinct she had, but it was her only option at this point. She was used to running headfirst into battle and letting someone else deal with the sneaky spy part of the job. Her tolerance for patience was a bit lacking, but she called forth every ounce she had as she waited for the guards to change. 

She'd planned her mission so that she would have a bit of extra time between breaching the fence and slipping through the door in case she ran into any unforeseen obstacles. But since step one had gone exactly as she'd hoped, she was stuck waiting for five excruciating minutes before the guards switched shifts. She steadied her breathing and began to count the seconds until the door would open. As much as she wanted to rush through the second she saw the guard exit, she knew she had to wait. The guard outside would be anxious to switch shifts, so he'd have his eyes trained on the door and would see her immediately. She had to wait until he went back in, but that also meant that she'd be right behind a HYDRA agent who could spot her at any second.

The door finally opened, and just like she'd suspected, the outside guard looked over immediately, and began walking toward his replacement. They spoke a few words to one another before nodding and switching places. The new guard started making his rounds around the perimeter of the fence while the one who'd been relieved began walking toward the door. 

From her vantage point around the corner, she could see the code he entered into the keypad by the door. She toyed with the idea of letting the guard go in and then waiting a few minutes to use the code, but she wasn't sure if the light spilling from the open door a second time in a matter of minutes would arouse suspicion in the the guard currently patrolling the grounds. Deciding to stick to her original plan, she began creeping along the side of the building once the guard opened the door.

She made it just before the door clicked shut and she breathed a sigh of relief. So far, so good. She peeked into the opening and saw the guard walking along the deserted hallway. This was her chance, so with a prayer to whomever might be listening above, she slipped through the door and let it softly click behind her.

There was nowhere to hide, so she squared her shoulders and began walking down the hallway like she belonged there. She'd discovered during her career that if she act like she was supposed to be somewhere, most people wouldn't question her.

The guard in front of her stopped suddenly and turned around. YN tried to keep her expression neutral as she kept walking straight toward him. If anything, she could easily take him out once she got close enough.

"Agent YLN," the man said with a nod. "I didn't realize you were back already."

YN was momentarily confused. She knew she had to say something, so she blurted out the first thing that came to her mind. "There was a change of plans."

"Did the mission not go well?" he asked hesitantly.

It was in that moment that YN realized he'd mistaken her for the version of her in this reality. In all of her planning and scheming, she'd never once thought to consider that there would be another YN YLN and that she would be HYDRA as well.

"It went perfectly," she improvised. "Which is why I'm back early."

He smiled and nodded. "That's good to hear. President Pierce will be delighted." He paused and gave her a furtive look. "Or does he not know you're back? Is that why you're sneaking in through the back door?"

"You know me too well," she said, meaning every word. What were the odds of her running into a guard that knew her every move? And one that seemed oddly familiar to her. Where had she met this kid before?

He nodded down the hallway. "Are you going to see the Captain?"

She had no idea what he was talking about, but she knew she had to say something. "Is the Captain expecting me?"

The agent began laughing. "Oh, he's always expecting you—he just hates it when you actually show up."

"What can I say? Some people love me, and some hate me."

"Oh, I think it's safe to say that Captain Rogers hates you, ma'am."

She'd been hoping against hope that the Captain he kept referring to was Steve, but she hadn't really been expecting to get that lucky. Now that she had confirmation that Steve was indeed alive and in the building, she just had to figure out a way to get this hapless idiot before her to lead her to him.

YN had no idea what to say next, but the guard provided her with the perfect excuse to get him to lead her straight to her main objective.

"I've heard that you're the only one that can make him scream for mercy," he said in awe. "Would you. . .I mean, I know it's asking a lot, but I. . ."

"Spit it out," she barked, hoping that she was reading the situation correctly.

"Can I watch?" he blurted out as his face began to turn red.

This was perfect. She couldn't believe her good fortune, but she knew better than to blow her cover. This man expected her to be a ruthless HYDRA agent. She couldn't very well walk up to him and kiss him in gratitude without giving herself away.

With a exaggerated roll of her eyes, she gave him a terse nod. "Very well." She saw the look of elation on his face and knew that they were both feeling the same emotion, but for very different reasons. "Well? What are you waiting for? I'm sure you know the way to the Captain."

"Right, right," he said with a quick nod.

Just as she'd predicted, the guard was all too willing to lead her straight to the room where Steve was being kept. But when they rounded the corner and saw the armed guard standing outside a door with another keypad, she realized that her good fortune would only go so far.

"Good evening, Agent YLN," the guard at the door said as he snapped to attention. "I wasn't aware you wanted to see the Captain this evening, ma'am."

"Is that going to be a problem?" she asked as she stared him down.

"No, of course not," he said as he turned and punched in the code for the door. "It's just that he's still on ice. It'll take a few minutes until he's conscious. I know you like him already awake and strapped to the table before you begin."

Dear God, what kind of monster was she in this reality? It sickened her to think that she took such pleasure in torturing another human being that everyone not only knew about it, but also didn't think it was out of the ordinary.

"It'll be fine," she said with a wave of her hand. She nodded toward the agent with her, and glanced down at the name on his uniform. "Parker is joining me tonight."

"This is going to be so awesome," Parker told the other guard in a stage whisper. "Mr. Stark is going to be so jealous when I tell him about it."

The way he said Tony's name finally clicked the last piece of the puzzle into place. Parker was the Spider-kid that Tony had recruited. YN hadn't gotten a chance to get to know him between the fight in Germany, and the one with Thanos. She'd been on Steve's side concerning the Accords, so she'd never gotten a chance to learn much about Tony's young protégé, and now her heart was breaking knowing that just like everyone else in this god-awful world, he was HYDRA as well.

The guard gave Parker a jealous look and went to leave the room, but YN stopped him. "Did I say you could leave?"

The color drained from his face. "Uh, no ma'am."

YN took a seat on one of the stools sitting beside a table with a variety of scalpels and blades. She was disgusted to be that close to instruments that had obviously been used to cause Steve pain, but she had a part to play. "I'll just wait here while you prep the Captain."

"Yes, ma'am," the guard said as he looked toward the kid. "Parker, want to give me a hand? He heavier than he looks."

With both of the HYDRA agents' backs turned to her, she was finally able to let down her guard and take in the full extent of the room. In addition to the table she was sitting at, there was another long table with a drain at each end. Thick metal clamps were attached along the edges to secure his arms and legs, and if YN wasn't mistaken, they were made from vibranium. That detail suggested that even Wakanda had fallen under the rein of HYDRA, so T'Challa and his sister, Shuri, would be of no help to her.

Along the back wall was a cryogenic chamber and through the glass window, she could just make out the gaunt face of Steve Rogers. She'd only seen pictures of him from before the serum, but the man currently frozen before her looked almost as small and sickly as the man he'd been before he met Howard Stark and Dr. Abraham Erskine.

With a whoosh of cold air, the cryogenic chamber decompressed and Parker opened the lid. Together the two of them removed the still unconscious Steve and carried him to the table. Steve was dressed in nothing put a pair of ragged pants that looked like a part of his original uniform from WWII. His chest was sunken in and YN could count his ribs under the paper-like skin that clung to his emaciated form.

When they went to secure the restraints, YN stopped them. "No, let me."

She walked over to the table and looked at the restraints. For her plan to work, she needed Steve to be mobile, so she knew restraining him would be counterproductive for her. Flipping one of the vibranium clamps over onto itself, she let it close without Steve's arm inside of it. She gave it a tug and then nodded in satisfaction.

"Ma'am?" Parker asked with a confused look on his face.

"I wanted to make sure they were in good working order," she lied. "Can't have the Captain breaking out of them when I'm in the middle of my work, now can we?" She motioned for the other guard and then pointed to the locked restraint. "Take care of this."

She watched him depress a hidden button along the edge of the clamp and it sprang open. She'd figured there was a trick to opening them, and now that she knew it, she could allow the farce to play out. Parker and the other guard quickly secured Steve's arms and legs and then stood back.

"You may go now," she motioned to the guard as she looked down at the still-unconscious form of her friend.

She waited until the door closed behind her before grabbing a viscous looking hammer from the table and turning on Parker. Hurting him wasn't something she wanted to do, but she didn't have a choice. With one quick blow to the head, he began to crumple. She reached out and grabbed him before he hit the floor so his fall wouldn't alert the guard outside that something was amiss.

She laid him gently on the ground and began to strip him of his uniform. It wouldn't be a perfect fit for Steve since he was about four inches taller than Parker, but with the weight Steve had lost over the years, it would fit well enough.

Dragging the unconscious kid over to the cryogenic chamber, she shoved him in and shut the door. She paused for a moment before hitting the button to freeze him. There was a thin trickle of blood running down his face and her heart broke a little. With a sigh, she pressed the button and watched as the effects of the freezing process took place. She didn't want to kill him, but she needed him out of the way.

A groan from behind her had her turning around as her breath caught in her throat. Steve was waking up, and she had no idea what to expect once he'd fully regained consciousness. He may have been a beaten-down version of the man she knew, but if the supersoldier serum still ran though his veins, then she knew she'd be no match for him in any condition. She needed a few minutes to convince him that she was there to help, so she was actually thankful for the restraints.

"Bitch," he muttered under his breath once he'd finally awoken and noticed her standing beside him.

"I'm not who you think I am, Steve," she said in English as she looked down at him sadly. "I need you to shut up and listen to everything I'm about to say."

She saw the hate in his eyes, but she couldn't let it deter her. As quickly as she could, she recounted her entire story and saw the look of disbelief in his eyes.

"Is a new form of torture?" he asked once she'd finished.

"Steve. . ."

"You're a sadistic bitch, YLN," he spat at her with hate-filled eyes. "Get on with it so I can go back in the ice."

"Someone's stolen your spot, unfortunately," she said as she nodded toward the cryo chamber.

Steve craned his neck and stared in disbelief at the HYDRA agent currently frozen across the room. He turned back to YN with suspicion in his eyes. "Give me one good reason to believe you."

She shrugged as she began hitting the releases on the clamps holding him down. "I'll give you four."

When he realized that he was free, he finally began to suspect that she was telling the truth. The Agent YLN he'd known would never risk being in the same room with him while he was unrestrained.

"You're my friend, Steve," she told him as her gaze begged him to believe her. "At least in my world, you are. I know the version of me on this side has been cruel beyond belief, but I could really use a friend right now, and I'm thinking you could, too."

Steve sat up and began rubbing his wrists. "What's your plan?"

"You believe me?"

"It took me a minute, but I can see you're not her," he said as he took a long breath. "I've stared into her eyes for years while she's tortured me, and not once have I ever seen a shred of humanity in her." He shook his head. "But you. . .you've got compassion in your eyes and that's an emotion I haven't seen since 1945."

YN grabbed Parker's uniform from the instrument table and tossed it to Steve. "Get dressed. I've got to warn you, though—it's not going to be easy getting out here. You up for a fight?"

"Are you kidding me?" he asked as he shrugged on Parker's uniform shirt. "I can do this all day."

YN closed her eyes as she felt emotion welling up within her. It was good to know that in all the chaos surrounding her, some things never changed. "Let's just hope you're right. I'm fully prepared to die trying to escape this nightmare world, but I'm really hoping I don't."

"That makes two of us," he said as he took advantage of her dropped head to change his pants.

When he was finally dressed, she told him to get in the corner beside the door. She didn't want the guard outside to see him before they had a chance to render him unconscious. 

With a nod to Steve, she threw open the door and yelled at the guard. "Get in here right now."

When Steve's arms came around his neck, YN saw the look of surprise on the guard's face. She didn't have time to worry about the guard, though, as she quickly peeked out of the door and checked the hallway.

"The coast is clear," she whispered to Steve. "Get him secured on the table, and then we're getting the hell out of here."

Once the guard was unconscious and immobilized, Steve stripped him of his weapons. He also grabbed the cap from his head and tried it on. Parker's had been too tight, but this one fit a little better.

"Let's go," she said as she slipped through the door and began walking back the way she'd come with Parker. "We're going to make a left up here and then another right at the second intersection. We'll head straight down that hallway to the door leading out the back. About thirty yards from the door is a fence. There's a divot that we can squeeze through to get under it." 

"Why are you telling me all this?" Steve asked warily.

She turned and gave him a hard look. "Because this has been way too easy, and I need you to know how to escape if something happens to me."

Shrugging off her backpack, she unzipped it and began divvying out the supplies. "Here's a few smoke grenades and a knife if you need it."

"What's the C4 for?"

"Just in case we need to blast our way out of here," she said with a smile. "A woman's got to be prepared for any circumstance that might arise."

They made the left, and YN knew in an instant that her luck had run out. Standing before them was her doppelgänger and a group of at least a dozen HYDRA agents.

"I wasn't surprised when they told me you'd escaped, but I've got to say I'm extremely disappointed that you were stupid enough to come back," the other version of herself snarled.

YN reached for the gun in the hostler strapped to her thigh. Giving the other YN a shrug, she said, "You had something I needed."

Evil YN snarled her lip and laughed. "That relic? I hate to tell you, but you're wasting your time."

"We'll see," YN said as she leveled her gun and fired off every round. One by one, the HYDRA agents around her doppelgänger fell to the floor. She'd deliberately let Steve be the one to take out her other self since she wasn't sure if she could do it. The six guards that remained standing rushed her, so she tossed the gun to the side and reached for the knife at her hip.

She'd always heard that it wasn't smart to bring a knife to a gun fight, but she'd been fortunate enough to have Bucky Barnes—the former Winter Soldier himself—teach her a few tricks. Within seconds, all of her targets were lying dead at her feet. Turning around she saw Steve and the other YN locked in a fierce hand-to-hand battle. She reached down and pulled a gun from one of the dead agents and took aim. With one pull of the trigger, she watched a spray of blood erupt from the hole in the back of the other woman's head as another spray coated Steve's shocked face.

When her doppelgänger crumpled to the floor, YN held her breath for a minute. "Oh, thank God. I was terrified it was going to be one of those alternate reality things where I would die if I killed the other version of myself."

"I had her on the ropes," Steve said breathlessly as he began wiping the blood from his face.

"I know you did," she said with a wink. "You'll get the next one, but right now, we need to get the hell out of here. This place is going to be crawling with HYDRA agents any second and I don't want to be around when they get here."

They grabbed a couple assault rifles from the downed agents and took off running toward the back entrance, but drew up short at the door. They hadn't run into anyone else, but YN had a bad feeling the back lawn would be crawling with agents. "This is probably a trap."

Steve nodded. "You got a plan?"

She gave him a lopsided shrug. "Don't die."

With an assault rifle in each hand, the burst through the door as they began spraying the back lawn with a barrage of bullets. The firefight that ensued was one of the worst she'd ever experienced, but their initial attack had taken out a lot of unprepared agents. When one lived in a police-state with little to no resistance, it was easy to get complacent and slack on training. She and Steve had the advantage over the young agents in the fact that they'd been fighting for their lives for years and knew not to ever let their guard down.

They made it through the fence eventually, but they hadn't made it through completely unscathed. Both of them had taken hits—her to the upper thigh and side, and him to the arm—but they were still able to move well enough to put some distance between themselves and the facility before blood loss and exhaustion began to overtake them.

"You got a place to lie low?" he asked as they used one another for support to keep walking through the deserted streets.

She nodded to a decrepit building a few blocks away. "Just up ahead."

When they'd finally made it to the block next to her building, she dropped Steve into the shadows of a doorway. "I'm going to check for surveillance—stay here."

He didn't put up a fight which surprised YN, but she didn't have time to worry about it. Taking the long way around, she scouted out the area in case her whole experience in this reality had been an elaborate trap. She wouldn't put it past HYDRA to let her get this far before pulling the rug out from under her, but as she checked all her safe-guards, she found none of them disturbed. No one had been in this part of town since she'd left a few hours before.

Going back to collect Steve, she helped him into her building and back to her hidden room. She carefully lowered him to the pile of blankets and went to find the first aid kit she'd seen attached to a wall in the warehouse a few days ago. The supplies were all outdated, but it would have to do.

She carefully unbuttoned Steve's borrowed shirt and helped him shrug out of it before leaning over to examine his wound. It was a clean through-and-though, but it still needed disinfected and stitched up. As she got to work, she couldn't help but notice the way he was looking at her.

"What?" she asked as she gently dabbed the alcohol swap to the entrance wound.

"I'm just curious," he said through clenched teeth. "What happens next?"

She gave him a devious smile. "We take down HYDRA and figure out how in the hell to get me home."

It didn't matter how quietly she moved through the abandoned building, Steve was always awake with a gun pointed in her direction when she walked through the door. The first time he'd had her in his crosshairs, she'd been terrified that he'd forget that Agent YLN was dead, and that she wasn't the one that had been torturing him for years. But so far he hadn't shot her. Since then, they'd devised a fool-proof plan to prove to him that she wasn't her evil doppelgänger come back to life.

"Hail HYDRA," she said in a sing-song voice as she shut the door of their room behind her.

Steve rolled his eyes at the snarky way she said the catchphrase, but he couldn't deny that those words would be the last thing Agent YLN would've ever dared to say to him in that tone of voice. "What's for dinner?"

Sitting cross-legged on the floor in front of him, she unzipped her backpack and began pulling out white styrofoam to-go boxes. "This one is some leftover Pad Thai from that place a few blocks away, and this one is a partially-eaten Philly cheesesteak with peppers and onions. Which one do you want?"

Dumpster diving for food wasn't the most appealing option, but it kept them from starving—and it was a thousand times better than the gruel HYDRA had fed him for the past seventy years. "I'll take the cheesesteak."

She handed over the sandwich and began scooping up the noodles with her bare hands. "Ooh, this is still warm."

Steve smiled at the look of pure joy on her face as he bit into his sandwich. His wasn't at all warm, and the cheese had hardened into a chewy blob that was far from appetizing, but he ate it anyway. He knew he still had a long way to go before he was perfectly healthy again, but the past few weeks, YN had gone out of her way to make sure he ate at least four to six times a day. The thought of her roaming the streets alone while HYDRA was no doubt searching for both of them made him uneasy, but there were no other options until he had the strength to fight like he used to.

"Is that Thai place there in your world?" he asked once he'd polished off his meal and wiped his hands on his legs.

YN shook her head. "I honestly don't know. We left New York City a few years ago, so it's mostly just pizza and burgers upstate."

He leaned back against the desk and considered her for a moment. "We always talk about what's going on here—how we're going to defeat HYDRA. . ."

When he paused, she gave him a second to finish his thought, but then she realized that he didn't really need to. "You want to know what life's like where I come from."

"You never mention just yourself," he said. "It's always 'us' or 'we.'"

A slow smile spread across her face. "That's because I'm a part of a team—the World's Mightiest Heroes, if you will."

"That's a bit arrogant, don't you think?"

"You're the leader," she said with a smirk.

His disdain faded away and was replaced with sadness. "I didn't do a very good job with the Howlies. . ." He paused as a wave of sadness washed over him. "I watched each one of them die right before my eyes."

She reached out and laid a hand on his arm. "I'm so sorry, Steve."

He looked up at her in confusion. "You seemed shocked. Didn't that happen in your world?"

"No," she said with a definitive shake of her head. "The only Howling Commando to die was Bucky, but he didn't actually die. . ." Her words trailed off when she saw the disbelief on his face. "Oh, Steve. They never told you about Bucky?"

"What about him?"

She swallowed hard and wondered if telling him the truth would serve any purpose other than to make him feel even worse about his failures. Realizing that he deserved to know, she took a deep breath and dove right in. "After he fell from the train, HYDRA captured him and turned him into their pet assassin. They called him the Winter Soldier."

All the color drained out of Steve's face. "I've heard that name before. Agent YLN always spoke of the Winter Soldier like I should know who he was, but she never said. . ."

"I'm so sorry, Steve," she said again, not knowing what else to say to ease his pain. "In my world, you rescue him a few years after you're unfrozen and help him find peace with what HYDRA made him do."

"Unfrozen? Did HYDRA put me in cyro in your world, too?"

She shook her head. "No. You followed Johann Schmidt onto the plane heading toward America with a HYDRA bomb. You defeated him, but not before the plane crash-landed in the Arctic. Peggy always blamed herself for not getting your coordinates before the radios cut out. . ."

"Peggy? Who's Peggy?"

It was YN's turn to look shocked. "Peggy Carter." That name didn't even register on his face, so she tried again. "The love of your life. The woman who helped you come to terms with Bucky's death. . ."

"I've never heard the name Peggy Carter in my entire life," Steve interrupted. 

YN couldn't believe what she was hearing. For months she'd wondered how this world could've turned out so differently than hers, but now she knew. Peggy Carter was the key to winning WWII and keeping HYDRA hiding in the shadows for so long. Without her, Steve had no compass—no guide to get him through the worst moment of his life. But the real question was, why hadn't Steve and Peggy ever met?

"I never stopped Johann Schmidt, either," he said softly. "I tried, but after I lost the rest of the Howlies, I just didn't have the strength to defeat him."

"You may not have been able to stop HYDRA then, but this time it's going to be different."

"Why's that?" he asked.

"Because you've got me, and I know who you are, Steve Rogers. I know you're the man who never gives up. You're the man that fights until he can barely stand. You're the man I've willingly followed into certain death more times than I can count, and you're the man who's always seen me through to the other side."

"I'm not that man, YN."

She saw the look of sadness on his face and she hated that this version of him was so beaten down and broken. "Weren't you the guy that told me you could 'do this all day' when you thought I was Agent YLN?"

"She thrived on weakness," Steve explained. "I couldn't give her what she wanted—my defiance was they only thing I had left."

"Aren't you glad she died knowing that she'd never beaten you?"

Steve loved the sassy gleam in her eyes and the way she was always able to help him see the best in any situation. He'd spent far too many years only dwelling on the pain and torture that he'd forgotten what it was like to have hope. And YN gave him hope.

"Killing her was always on my to-do list," he said with a wry grin.

YN gave him a faux look of abashment. "Oops."

He waved a hand and shook his head. "The wicked witch is dead. . ."

"Ding-dong, the witch is dead," YN began singing with a goofy smile. "Which old witch? The wicked witch."

"I understood that reference," he said as he pointed a shocked finger at her.

A memory of their first mission together as Avengers came flooding back to her and a wave of sadness overtook her. "I know." She swallowed her tears and took a steadying breath. "So what else is on that to-do list of yours?"

"Oh, you know, kill your doppelgänger, defeat HYDRA, restore the world to the way it should be, and then retire to a nice tropical island somewhere."

"Is that all?" she asked with a laugh. "That's only four things, and one of them is already taken care of." She harrumphed and waved her hand like Tony always did when someone said something ridiculous. "This is going to be a piece of cake."

"Oh, yeah," he said with an excited smile. "Cake—that's on the list, too."

She shook her head as she laughed along with him. There were moments like this that she almost forgot that he wasn't her Steve, but then reality would come crashing back down on her. Steve's bucket list was almost the same as hers, but instead of retiring to an island, all she really wanted was to go back home. 

But what if that wasn't an option for her?

After months of plotting and planning, they were finally ready to take down HYDRA. Steve had steadily regained his strength, and training together reminded YN of the old days before the Sokovia Accords and Thanos. She'd always respected Steve, and they'd gotten along well as teammates, but there was a different dynamic between this version of the Captain and hers—and she wasn't sure if that was a good thing or not.

Steve laid out the blueprints of the facility they'd drawn up on the desk. "We can't sneak in the same way you did when you rescued me."

YN shook her head. "Agent YLN is dead, so impersonating her again is out." She leaned down and ran her finger along one of the corridors on the map. "We need to go in hard and fast."

"And take out the. . .?" Steve looked up at her confused. "What's the word again?"

"Servers," she reminded him. 

Being locked away in cryo for over eighty years had made this version of Steve exactly like hers those first few months after coming out of the ice. Modern technology was something out a fairy tale, but he was catching on pretty quickly. YN reasoned he didn't really need to know how technology worked—he just needed to destroy it.

"We take out the servers and then they lose all ability to communicate," Steve said aloud, more for his own benefit than for YN's.

"According to this guy." YN gestured over her shoulder to the bloodied and beaten HYDRA agent they'd been tapping for information the past few weeks.

Steve looked over at their hostage. "Are we sure he's telling the truth?"

YN thought about that for a second. There was a chance that he was lying, but everything they'd been able to check out thus far had turned out to be accurate. "I don't think we have a choice. I'm still not sure how I ended up in this timeline to begin with, but something tells me the longer we wait, the less chance I'm going to have to find my way back home."

"What if. . ."

"Don't go there," YN interrupted as she gave him a hard look. She knew exactly what he was thinking because she'd thought the same thing herself. What if destroying the servers destroyed her only chance at getting back home?

"Okay, we go in at midnight," Steve said, changing the subject and forcing her to focus on the plan again.

She nodded. "Use the cover of darkness to our advantage and hopefully catch them off-guard."

One eyebrow rose as a smirk lifted the corner of his lips. "There's no catching them off-guard. Not since you broke me out."

Reaching over, she squeezed one of his biceps. "You sure you're up for this? We can wait a few more. . ."

He laid a hand on her shoulder and looked deep into her eyes. "This world isn't your problem—it's mine. If we're going to get you back home, we need to do it now."

"Aye, aye, Captain," she said with a mock salute that earned her the Eyebrows of Disappointment. Seeing the classic expression on his face made her nostalgic for her own Steve Rogers, but it also had her stomach doing somersaults. She'd never felt this way around him before, but now wasn't the time to dwell on that.

"Let's pack up and go." He gave her shoulder a quick squeeze and walked over to where they'd stored their contraband.

With a nod, she pulled out the list of supplies and read it off while he checked both of their packs. HYDRA may have been on the lookout for her, but with their lackluster training and her expert skills, she'd still been able to pilfer explosives and ammo right out from under their noses—not to mention one of their own agents.

They left the goon tied up and unconscious in the safe house and began making their way toward the HYDRA headquarters a few miles away. 

As they neared the fence line, YN noticed that security details had been increased along the perimeter.

"They're expecting us," she whispered to Steve.

"Better not keep them waiting, then," he snarked.

She grabbed the wire cutters from her pack and began clipping through the chain-link fence. 

Steve held back the section she'd cut and let her slip through first. Once he was on the other side, he grabbed a grenade from his pack and checked to make sure she was ready. At her nod, he pulled the pin and threw it as hard as he could.

The grenade landed about a hundred yards away from their position, and after a few seconds, it exploded causing dirt and sod to rain down on the agents patrolling that section of the grounds. 

"Let's move," he said as they began running in the opposite direction.

The agent they'd captured had told them about another entrance on the far side of the building, and had even provided a code. While the alarms blared and agents began pouring onto the back lawn, YN and Steve slipped into the building unnoticed.

In addition to weapons, YN had also stolen a uniform to help her blend in. A close inspection would reveal her identity, but she was hoping that with all the chaos going on around them, no one would notice her and Steve going in the wrong direction.

Whenever they would run into a group of agents, Steve would point toward the back entrance and bark, "We need men out back ASAP." It never failed to have the men snapping to attention and doing exactly what they'd been told.

"Damn, but they're stupid," she said after that ruse had worked for the fifth time.

"They're just used to taking orders."

"It's a shame that's a quality you don't possess, Captain Rogers," said a man rounding the corner.

YN and Steve both stopped dead in their tracks when they realized Pierce was the one speaking. It wasn't Pierce that had their blood running cold, but the man with the cold, dead eyes and shining titanium arm with the bright red star beside him.

"I'm no match for him, Steve," YN said as her heart began to race. "I'll take the asshole in the suit, but you're going to have to take Bucky."

"He'll remember me, right?" Steve asked as he poised himself for the upcoming battle.

"In this world?" she quipped. "God only knows."

YN pulled a gun and took aim at Alexander Pierce, but before she could fire off a few rounds, a team of HYDRA agents came around the corner and opened fire on her. Shouldering open a door, she took cover in the room until she could reassess her situation.

Steve and the Soldier were battling fiercely, but Steve had the upper hand. YN's training with her versions of Steve and Bucky had helped her to show him what to expect from an attack by the Winter Soldier. It still didn't negate the fact that he was as strong as an ox, and completely ruthless in battle. There was no such thing as fair play when it came to HYDRA.

YN reached back into her pack and pulled out a smoke grenade. Yanking out the pin, she tossed it into the hallway as she slipped on the gas mask she'd been lucky enough to procure the week before last. 

When she heard the agents start coughing, she grabbed a gun in each hand and headed back into the fray. Picking off the gagging men was like shooting fish in a barrel, but she didn't care. She had one objective, and one objective only—destroy the servers and take down HYDRA. If an opportunity to kill Pierce arose, she'd be more than happy to take it, but without his communications network, he'd have a hard time regrouping before she and Steve took down the whole organization.

The smoke began to clear and YN saw that all the agents were down, but Steve and the Soldier were still going at it a few meters down the hall from her. She pulled off the mask and looked around for Pierce, but he must have bolted at the first sign of trouble. _Coward_, she thought as she left Steve to handle his old buddy and went in search of the servers.

She'd memorized the route, so she knew where she needed to go, but before she could make the second turn, Pierce popped back up with a rifle in his hands, spraying the hallway with bullets. Acting on instinct, she started shooting as she dove to the ground to avoid his fire.

When she heard his pained grunt, she knew she'd hit him somewhere. The barrage of bullets ceased as he fell to the ground. Regaining her feet, she walked over and pointed her gun directly between his eyes.

"You deserve to rot in hell for what you've done," she snarled as she stared into his fearful eyes.

He glanced at something behind her and his arrogance returned in an instant. "You first, bitch."

The second his expression had changed, she'd started moving, but she wasn't quick enough to avoid the shot that came from behind her. Pain exploded in her left shoulder as she pivoted to take out whomever had snuck up behind her. Her quick instincts had saved her from a bullet to the heart, but as she fired at the Winter Soldier, she knew the odds of her making out of this facility alive had just gone to zero.

The Soldier raised an arm and deflected the bullet with ease, and YN had a moment of panic as she wondered where Steve was. _Had the Soldier killed him? Was she truly on her own right now?_

She continued firing, but he blocked every one of her shots. When he was close enough, he stomped his boot onto her injured shoulder and she screamed out in pain.

This was the end, and while she hated that she'd never get a chance to go back home, she was glad she was going to go out fighting. Better to die in battle than to be slowly tortured to death like she assumed they'd originally planned.

"Kill her," Pierce ordered as he clutched the wound on his chest.

The Soldier looked down at her and took aim, but before he could pull the trigger, a blast of light filled the corridor blinding them all. The Soldier was knocked into the wall, but YN knew it wouldn't be enough to slow him down for too long. YN covered her eyes, but the brief glimpse of the rainbow-like colors had her heart filling with hope.

"Who do I need to kill?" the tall blond asked as he idly swung his hammer.

Pierce pointed toward YN, but she identified the Soldier as the bigger threat. Pierce's voice was more authoritative than hers, but she definitely had the upper hand in this situation.

"Electrocute his ass, Thor," YN said, causing the god to raise an eyebrow at the use of his name.

"The metal-armed man it is," Thor said as he began twirling Mjolnir and sending a jolt of electricity straight into the Soldier as he struggled to his feet.

YN wasn't worried about Thor killing the Soldier—he'd been electrocuted enough times in his life, and he could withstand a little more. YN's main concern was Pierce. Deciding that she'd wasted enough time on that asshole, she simply took aim and shot him between the eyes.

YN pointed at the Soldier lying unconscious on the floor. "Keep an eye on him."

"Where are you going, m'lady?"

She didn't have time to make small talk with Thor when Steve's life might be hanging in the balance. Retracing her steps back to where she'd last seen him battling the Soldier, she cried out when she found him in a bloody heap.

"Steve," she yelled as she fell to her knees beside him and began feeling for a pulse.

"I can do this all day," he muttered between bouts of coughing up blood.

She shook her head as tears began streaming down her face. "What happened?"

"I called him Bucky," Steve choked out. "It seemed like he remembered me. . ."

"Pierce must have coached him." She swore as she threw one of Steve's arms over her good shoulder and helped him to his feet.

"How'd you beat him?"

"I didn't," YN said as they turned a corner and came face to face with a widely-grinning Thor. "He did."

"Anyone else I need to kill today?" Thor asked.

A group of HYDRA agents started running toward them and YN swore under her breath. _Couldn't they catch a break?_

"Those guys," she told Thor.

He nodded and with a roar began using Mjolnir to knock them down like bowling pins. YN shook her head and followed behind him toward the servers.

When they reached the room, she asked Thor to break down the door. She was still holding up Steve, but she could tell he was about to pass out on her.

"If you could fry this entire room, I'd be eternally grateful."

Thor gave her a questioning look and then pointed Mjolnir at the rows of servers filling up the entire room. "It looks important. Are you sure?"

"Do it," Steve ordered as his eyes began to flutter.

With a shrug, Thor began twirling Mjolnir again. After a few dozen revolutions, he sent an arc of electricity straight toward the computers. The long banks of servers popped and hissed as the electricity fried their circuits and started an enormous fire.

"Time to go," YN said as she gestured toward the door.

They headed back the way they'd come, but when they got to the corridor where they'd left Pierce and the Soldier, the dead man was the only body still there.

"Where's Buck?" Steve asked as he craned his neck to search the corridors, his concern for his old friend sending a jolt of adrenaline coursing through his veins. 

"He's in the wind." YN knew she probably shouldn't give him hope, but without HYDRA's constant manipulation, Bucky might have a chance at remembering who he was. "We'll find him, Steve."

"What about him?" Thor asked as he looked down at the dead man in disgust and kicked Pierce's foot.

"We'll need the body to prove he's dead," YN said with a sigh. "I've got Steve if you can grab the corpse."

"Who's this guy again?" Steve asked as he watched Thor grab Pierce's ankle and start dragging him down the hallway.

"Thor, God of Thunder, meet Steve Rogers, also known as Captain America," YN said, introducing the two men.

"God?" Steve asked.

"I know, I know," she muttered. "There's only one God and he doesn't dress like that." She sighed and shook her head. "He's ridiculously strong, and practically immortal—just go with it."

"You must have fought valiantly today, Steve Rogers," Thor observed as he pointed toward Steve's battered face.

"Believe it or not, I've looked worse." Steve chuckled at his own joke before wincing in pain.

"How'd you know to come to our rescue?" YN asked.

"Heimdall alerted me to the situation." Thor paused and held up a finger. "Forgive me, Heimdall is. . ."

"The Gatekeeper of Asgard and the Watcher of Worlds," YN finished for him with a smile.

"Yes," Thor said as his gaze narrowed. "Heimdall said there was one here that was not of this world. Which is why he sent me to save you. Something about you helping to set Midgard back on the correct course."

"Tell him I said thanks."

"So, what do we do next?" Thor asked as he opened the door for her.

She didn't get a chance to answer him, though. As soon as they stepped out into the night, they came face to face with hundreds of HYDRA agents waiting for them with guns drawn.

_____________________

_Author's Note: Thank you for reading Day 258 of my writing challenge! I hope you enjoyed it! Who guessed that Thor would be my teleporting character? Having Heimdall alive again makes things a little easier on me, but I'm fairly sure you guys are pretty happy he's not dead in this world. As for Loki, well, we'll see! Bucky got away, but that doesn't mean he won't pop back up later on, but at least Pierce is dead!! Now our heroes just have to get past this one last barrier and then they can take back the world. I look forward to your comment, and if you enjoyed this story, please consider reblogging!_

"A little help would be nice," Thor yelled up at the sky as he began swinging Mjolnir again.

YN was about to ask who he was calling for when the Bifrost opened again and Loki, the Lady Sif, and the Warriors Three all appeared beside Thor.

"You two are injured," Thor said over his shoulder. "We'll take care of this."

YN looked over at Steve. "What do you say? Sit this one out?"

"Give me a gun," he said through gritted teeth. "I may not be able to fight, but I can still shoot."

She left him propped up against the wall and went to where a fallen HYDRA agent lay dead on the grass. The Asgardians were making short work of the foot soldiers, so it wasn't hard to find a few guns for her and Steve to "borrow."

Steve immediately began picking off agents one by one, making sure not to accidentally hit their new allies. 

YN had noticed that some of the more cowardly goons were trying to make a run for it, so she starting taking them out before they had a chance to escape. As she did so, she noticed some of the agents falling, but neither she nor Steve were the ones taking them down. The only explanation that made sense was that they had an ally hidden amongst the chaos, but it wasn't until she noticed the arrow sticking out of the back of a dead agent that she started to realize who it was.

The sound of two missiles filled the air and YN took cover before she realized that she and Steve weren't the targets. With a deafening sound, two groups of hostiles were blown into a thousand pieces.

"Sorry we're late," Tony said as he landed in front of YN and opened his faceplate to give her a smirk. "Someone forgot to invite us to the party."

Not knowing whether or not she could trust him, she raised her weapon and put that smug face in her crosshairs. "How do I know you're not here to kill us?"

Before he could answer, a few more familiar faces joined the Asgardians, and YN felt a rush of pride and nostalgia. She watched in awe as Natasha single-handedly took down five agents in less than three seconds. Clint had abandoned his perch in the trees and was covering Nat's back so she could work unhindered. Rhodey had dropped down out of the sky and was using the weapons in the War Machine suit to completely obliterate large groups at a time. Even Sam and Redwing were in the fray, doing their best to assist the Asgardians.

With her gun still trained on Tony, she narrowed her eyes. "Why now?"

Tony held up his hands and nodded toward Steve. "Waiting for the old man to finish his beauty sleep." Forgetting that she had a gun aimed right at his face, he scowled and pointed an accusatory finger at her. "Which reminds me. You're on my shit list."

"What the hell did I do to you?"

"You locked the kid in the freezer!"

Sudden movement from behind her had her pivoting quickly and taking aim. 

"It's okay, Mr. Stark," Peter said as he made a wide arc around YN to get to Tony. "She didn't kill me."

"I had the perfect agent in place to do some recon, and you just had to go and whack him in the head, didn't you?"

"How was I supposed to know the kid was a double agent?" she said as she glared at him.

With the added help from the Avengers, the threat was quickly neutralized. Making sure that Thor had Pierce's body, they followed Tony toward the Quinjet he'd left on the other side of the building. Steve was in pretty bad shape, but Rhodey assured her that they had medics back at the Compound.

"Where's Bruce?" YN asked before she realized they may not know who she was talking about. "Banner? Super genius? Breathtaking anger management issues?"

"Oh, you have one of those, too?" Tony asked with a wide smile. "Here I was thinking his stupidity was simply because of HYDRA."

"You have a Hulk?"

"We have a Hulk," Tony confirmed with a huge smile before nodding toward the front of the plane. "He's back home trying to fix the gaping hole in reality that opened up a few weeks ago."

YN's attention was immediately piqued. "Hole in reality?"

"You know," Nat said as one eyebrow raised. "The one you came through."

"She was unconscious, Nat," Clint reminded his partner. "I doubt she remembers that."

"Bruce can't close it yet," YN said. "Not until after I go back through."

Tony shook his head. "Pierce had big plans for that hole, sweetheart. We're not about to let it stay open a second longer than necessary."

"How long has he been working on closing it?" YN asked, trying to figure out how much time she had.

Rhodey looked down at his watch. "Since about the time you killed Pierce."

"How do you know what time she killed him?" Steve asked as he tried to sit up.

"I've had my eye on you since you came through the rift," Tony said. He crossed his arms over his chest and gave her an appraising look. "You were a wild card, but I had a feeling you'd end up changing the whole game. It's why I had Barton put a tracker on you the night you escaped."

YN's eyes shot to Clint and she wasn't surprised to see the look of smug satisfaction on his face. "So, it was you that I fought on my way out." She turned back to Tony. "I don't understand. If you were tracking me, then why didn't you show up before now?"

Tony pointed at Steve. "He was the only one that stood a chance against the Soldier. We didn't want to risk showing our hand until we were sure you two could take down Pierce."

"You threw us to the wolves," YN snarled. "God, you're a son of a bitch." She shook her head in disgust. "I guess it doesn't matter what universe you're in—you'll always be a self-centered bastard."

"Aww, we're friends in your world?"

"I wouldn't go that far," YN said with a dry look. "But you could say I'm extremely familiar with your level of asshole-ry."

"Look, princess, if it weren't for me. . ." He paused and pointed to the rest of the team on the jet, ". . .for all of us, you would've been captured weeks ago. We stuck our necks out to keep you and the Living Legend off of HYDRA's radar." He let out an exasperated sigh. "We've been working our asses off in the background so you could take out the biggest threats."

The jet began its decent toward the landing pad outside the Compound. Once it had touched down, Tony hit the release for the cargo bay door and began walking down the ramp. "We've been operating behind the scenes for years to overthrow HYDRA." He indicated all the men and women roaming the grounds. "Do you have any idea how hard it is to find people you can trust when everyone's been brainwashed?"

"Why?" YN asked as she shook her head in confusion. "HYDRA's been around all your life. Why would you resist them?"

"Have you forgotten who my father is?" Tony asked as way of explanation.

"Stark? As in Howard Stark?" Steve couldn't believe he hadn't put it together before that moment, but now it was starting to make sense.

"The one and only." Tony dropped his head and put his hands on his hips. "My old man felt guilty for this mess, and he tried to stop it in his time. He paid for that with his life."

YN knew the story from her world, but she wasn't sure she wanted to know if events had played out the same way in this one, so she changed the subject. "So, you've been collecting superheroes to try to do it the right way."

"No," said a man wearing an eye patch and a long, black coat. "That was my job, Agent YLN."

YN's face scrunched up in disgust. After meeting the other Agent YLN, she never wanted to hear that name again. "Please, just call me YN."

"As you wish," Fury said with a nod.

"So, let me get this straight. You've been operating a secret organization right under HYDRA's nose for. . .how long?"

Fury smiled. "Since the Second World War."

YN started laughing. 

"What's so funny?" Fury asked.

YN shook her head at the irony of the situation. "In my world, it was HYDRA that was operating right under the noses of S.H.I.E.L.D."

"S.H.I.E.L.D.?"

"Strategic Homeland Intervention, Enforcement and Logistics Division," YN explained with a big smile.

"Yeah, cause that just rolls off the tongue," Tony snarked.

"Blame your dad," YN said as she shot a smirk over her shoulder at Tony. "So, what do you call it?"

"The Avengers Initiative," Fury said proudly before glancing down at the phone in his hand. "Dr. Banner is almost finished with his calculations. If you'd like to head back to your world, I'd suggest you do it soon."

YN looked back at Steve and saw the brief hint of sadness in his eyes. She knew she would be leaving him in the best of hands, but up until a few weeks ago, she was the only friend he'd had in eighty years.

"I'd like to make sure Captain Rogers is okay before I leave," she told Fury.

"Barton will take him up to the sick bay while I handle our new guests," Fury said as he turned his attention to the Asgardians.

Thor and his friends had spent the entire flight reliving the battle they'd just won and hadn't been the least bit interested in the rest of the people on the plane. But now that they'd landed, YN wondered how their conversation with Fury would go. She remembered the first time Fury and Thor had met back in her world, and while she hated to miss all the fun, Steve was her main priority.

The doctors at the Compound stitched him up as best they could and gave him some high-powered drugs to try to combat the pain. YN knew there wasn't a drug on Earth that could knock him out completely, but at least the meds seemed have taken the edge off so he was able to rest.

She knew she needed to tell him goodbye, but her cowardice won out in the end. Borrowing a piece of paper and a pen from one of the nurses, she began to write him a letter in lieu of a proper farewell.

____________________

_Steve,_

_By the time you read this, I'll be back in my own world. I'm sorry I didn't say goodbye, but we both knew this day was coming—it was the reason we risked our lives tonight._

_I know you don't know the people I've left you with, but it seems as though the Avengers are the same no matter what universe they're from. You've heard all my stories, so you know you're amongst allies. Just give them a chance and you'll see._

_I never got the chance to know you in my world like I did while I was here, but I'm glad I got the opportunity. You're every bit the hero you were in my universe, so don't ever let anyone tell you any different. And don't let Tony get under your skin—he has a habit of doing that. All of the people here are great, but I'd recommend training with Nat and Thor. Sam's the guy you want in your corner, though. He's loyal and trustworthy, and he might even be willing to help you track down Bucky._

_Stay safe, and don't do anything stupid after I'm gone. The world needs Captain America more than ever right now._

_Your friend,_

_YN YLN_

_________________

_Author's Note: Thank you for reading Day 300 of my writing challenge! I hope you enjoyed it! First of all, I can't believe we're already at Day 300! It seems like yesterday I was writing Day 1, and now we're only a few weeks away from the end. . . Enough of that for now—we'll save the teary goodbye for later. Did you like the plot twist I threw at you guys in this one? I could've written five thousand words going into detail about how and why everything worked out the way it did, but I think I was able to get the gist of it in a just a few thousand! Were you surprised that Fury and the Avengers were working within HYDRA to bring it down? Gotta love those double agents! Do you think they'll be able to get the world back on track? I've already got a couple more prompts ready for this one, so it's not over yet! I look forward to your comments, and if you enjoyed this story, please consider reblogging!_

YN left the letter laying on the table beside Steve's bed and went in search of Bruce. Fury had indicted that the rift had opened up near the river behind the Compound. She could've told them why, but she didn't think they needed to know everything that had gone wrong in her universe. 

Especially Tony.

She'd enjoyed her bantering with the billionaire, and even though he drove her crazy, she missed him. 

She missed all of the ones they'd lost, but it wouldn't do any good to let them know that in her world, they didn't exist anymore.

As soon as she stepped out the back door, she saw the giant, glowing tear in the universe. There was no doubt in her mind that her universe was responsible for this, but as to what actually caused it, she was at a loss. There were a myriad of explanations—from Bruce's snap to bring back all those than Thanos had taken, to Nebula bringing the entire Black Order through the Quantum Tunnel, to Tony's snap to wipe the evil bastards from the face of the Earth. Any one of those options were plausible, but YN had a feeling it was a combination of all three that had done the trick—too much energy being released on the same planet had to have consequences.

She was looking for a big green scientist, so when she spotted Bruce in his human form, she was a little surprised.

"They told me you knew who I was," Bruce said as he studied her carefully. "You seem surprised, though."

"Where I come from, you and the other guy have made nice with one another," she explained as she walked toward the rift to get a better look. "You did this body-meld thing."

Bruce pushed his glassed up his nose and began following her. "Body-meld? Like. . .like me and the other guy are. . ." He interlaced his fingers together. ". . .one?"

"Yep." She turned back and smiled at him. "His brawn and your brains. It's a pretty great combo and you both seem to be really happy. No more anger issues, as far as I know."

"How'd he do it?" Bruce asked, instantly intrigued.

YN shook her head. "I'm not sure. Something about gamma rays."

"Gamma rays," Bruce muttered under his breath. "It's always about those damn gamma rays."

"So," she said as she hooked a thumb over her shoulder toward the rift. "How does this thing work? Do I just walk through and I'm home?"

"I've been studying it since it appeared, but I really don't know too much about how it works."

"Has anyone gone through?"

Bruce nodded. "Pierce sent a recon team in right after you appeared."

"And?"

"They never came back." He paused and motioned for her to follow him back to his work station. "We did send a drone in once the recon team didn't come back."

"Why didn't Pierce do that first?"

"That asshole didn't care about lives. He just wanted results."

YN crossed her arms over her chest. "Has anyone other than me come through to this side?"

"No," Bruce said with a shake of his head. "Just you." He hit a couple keys and a monitor came to life. "This was the only video footage we got from the other side."

YN watched as the fuzzy screen focused to reveal a massive pile of rubble.

"We're not sure where the drone ended up on your side," Bruce said as he pointed toward the screen. "I had theorized that it would be in the exact same spot on your Earth."

"It is," she said softly.

"What?" Bruce leaned over and squinted at the screen. "That's not the Compound."

"Yeah, it is." She took a deep breath and let it out slowly. "We kinda had a battle with Thanos a few weeks back."

"Thanos? The big purple guy that Pierce gave those Stones to?"

"Unfortunately. He's bad news. . ."

"Just how bad?" Fury asked as he walked across the lawn with Thor following closely behind.

"End-of-the-universe-as-we-know-it, bad."

Thor crossed his arms and narrowed his gaze. "He acquired the Space and the Time Stone from Earth. I've heard rumors that he has the Mind Stone as well."

"What about the Power Stone?" YN asked. "Do the Guardians have it?"

"They do," Thor said as his gaze grew suspicious. "How do you know the Guardians?"

"You actually teamed up with them to fight Thanos in my world."

"Did I now?" Thor's face split into a huge grin. "Was I in charge?"

YN wasn't sure how to answer him, so she just evaded the question. "It's complicated. Anyway, what about the Soul Stone and the Reality Stone?"

Thor shook his head. "Both lost for centuries, thankfully."

"He hasn't found them?"

"Thanos, you mean?" Fury asked. "Did he find them all in your world?"

YN nodded. "But don't ask me where they are. I just know he found them." A sudden realization hit her. "Thor, you didn't happen to come to Earth about fifteen years ago and meet a group of scientists, did you?"

"No," Thor answered hesitantly. "Why?"

YN breathed a silent sigh of relief. If he never met Jane Foster then there was a chance she never discovered the Reality Stone. YN could only hope that meant it was still safely tucked away wherever it had been hidden for the last few centuries.

She plastered a fake smile on her face. "No reason."

"So, this is your world?" Fury asked as they looked at the video image again.

YN turned back just in time to see a pair of glowing red eyes fill the screen before it went dark.

"That's it," Bruce said. "That's all we got."

"Something on your side didn't want us to know what was there," Fury surmised. "Any idea what that something was?"

YN smiled and everyone looked at her like she was crazy. "That's not a something, it's a someone. Wanda Maximoff—the Scarlet Witch." She took a deep breath and tried to figure out how to explain. "Long story short, the Mind Stone ends up on Earth and our version of HYDRA experiments on humans with it. They create two super-powered twins that eventually switch sides and join the Avengers." She pointed at the screen. "I'd be willing to bet your recon team didn't last more than a few minutes on my side before the Avengers took them out. We're not too fond of HYDRA over there. As for the drone. . .yeah, it wouldn't have lasted long, either."

"It sounds like your world isn't much better off than ours," Fury observed. "Are you sure you want to go back?"

YN looked at the rift glowing a few feet away from her. Maybe Fury had a point, but everything she'd ever known was waiting for her on the other side. "It's home."

Bruce nodded in understanding. "I think I've figured out how to close it, so if you're going, you should probably go now."

YN reached out and shook Fury's hand. "I'm glad I was wrong about this place. I really thought heroes didn't exist in this world, but I should've known better."

"We'll get it all straightened out," he told her as he nodded toward Thor over his shoulder. "With a little help from our new friends, of course."

"Good luck," she told them as she gave them a mock salute and started toward the rift.

She paused for a moment and glanced back over her shoulder. This was the last chance she'd get to see her home the way it was before Thanos, so she wanted one last look before she said goodbye. Her thoughts shifted to Steve, and she felt the slightest tug of her heartstrings, but she didn't have time for what-ifs. 

Steeling her nerves, she closed her eyes and took the final step.

She'd been expecting to feel something, so when nothing happened she opened her eyes and turned around.

"What the hell just happened, Banner?" Fury screamed as Bruce began frantically hitting buttons on the control board.

"Guys?" YN asked. "Why I am still here? And where's the rift?"

Bruce looked up helplessly. "I didn't do anything, I swear."

"Then what happened?" YN asked as her eyes grew wide with shock and fear.

"I think they closed it from their side."

YN turned back around and screamed at the spot where the rift had been a moment before. "Dammit, Bruce!"

_________________

_Author's Note: Thank you for reading Day 315 of my writing challenge! I hope you enjoyed it! Did you guess that I was going to keep her stranded in the alternate universe? That wasn't my original plan, but these prompts! I kinda like where things are going now, so hopefully you'll agree once you read the final part next month. It's interesting to think about how one person can change the entire outcome of the world. I know this is fiction, but I believe it's true in real life. Everyone's life has meaning, and while we might not understand what it is at the moment, the world would be a completely different place without you in it. So always remember—you're important! I look forward to your comments, and if you enjoyed this story, please consider reblogging!_

YN left Bruce, Thor, and Fury at the river and headed back up to the sick bay. Bruce had spent a good thirty minutes trying to re-open the rift, and Thor had even tried using Mjolnir to jumpstart it, but to no avail. Her team had closed it from their side, and she couldn't blame them. If she'd been in their shoes, and a team of HYDRA agents had come through looking for trouble, she'd have wanted to close it herself.

It appeared as though she'd be stuck in this world forever, but she was finding it hard to be upset about this turn of events. While she missed her home, she'd started to grow pretty fond of the version of Steve she'd met on this side. She knew it was due to the years of torture, and not having Peggy in his life that made him seem a little more broken than she was used to, but that only made her want to comfort him more. The question of what had happened Peggy still needed to be answered—in her mind at least—and now it appeared as though she'd have the chance to figure that out.

When she slipped into Steve's room, she found him still passed out from the combination of drugs and injuries. Grabbing the letter she'd left for him off the table, she sat down and began to tear it into tiny pieces. There would be no need for handwritten goodbyes now.

Steve's eyelids began to flutter and he started thrashing in his sleep. She jumped to her feet and went to grab his shoulder before she thought better of it and backed away. Remembering how Bucky had reacted to people touching him in his sleep during a nightmare, YN kept her hands to herself and started talking to him.

"Steve, you need to wake up." She waited for a beat. 

Nothing.

"Steve," she said a little louder. "Wake up."

He came awake with a start and his eyes began darting around the room. Finally landing on her, he let out a heavy sigh and relaxed into the pillows. "YN."

She sat on the edge of the bed and reached out to swipe a lock of hair out of his eyes. "It's okay. You're safe now."

He nodded as his breathing started to even out. 

"You want to talk about it?"

He shook his head, but kept his eyes shut. "Why are you still here? I thought you'd be long gone by now."

"Well," she began, drawing out the word. "Apparently my idiots decided to close the rift from their side."

"Without trying to rescue you?"

"It seems as though Pierce sent a small army of HYDRA agents and a drone through the rift, so they were probably feeling a little threatened." She shrugged. "We've had some incidents with people showing up uninvited, so it makes sense they'd shut down a potential threat as quickly as possible."

"Did they even send anyone to this side to try to find you?"

YN shook her head. "It doesn't seem like it."

Steve shook his head. "I just find it hard to believe that the version of me over there wouldn't come looking for you."

"He's not exactly in the best shape to be leading rescue missions right now," YN said with a grimace.

"Was he injured?"

"Not exactly," she hedged, trying to figure out the best way to tell the story. "Remember when I asked you about Peggy?"

"The woman I was supposed to have fallen in love with?"

YN nodded. "Yeah. So, he got a chance to go back and live out his life with her, so he took it." She shrugged. "He's over a hundred years old right now. And I mean sun-spotted, wrinkly, barely-able-to-walk a hundred years old."

"Hmm," Steve murmured as he studied her. "And you're okay with that?"

"What? That he went back to live his life? Absolutely." She gave him a sad smile. "He sacrificed everything to save the world—he deserved to be happy."

"Well, where does that leave me?"

YN considered his question carefully. "I'd say you deserve to be happy, too. Especially after what you've been through."

He nodded as he searched her eyes for some hidden answer. She had a feeling she knew what he was looking for, but a part of her was scared of getting her hopes up. When he reached for her hand and gave it a squeeze, she decided that maybe hope wasn't a bad thing to have after all.

__________________

Steve eventually got better, and with the entire team fully assembled—and with the help of the Asgardians—the world slowly started to resemble the one she'd left behind. It wasn't easy, and there were still pockets of resistance, but fighting HYDRA was something she was used to. And after Thanos and the Black Order, it seemed like a piece of cake.

She and Steve had gradually transitioned from friends to more-than-friends, but it was new territory for both of them, and the world wasn't exactly ideal for a new romance to be blooming. But there was the potential for something more once things calmed down.

"I can't remember the last time I was able to just sit and look at the stars," Steve said as they lay on the roof of the Compound and stared up into the night sky.

"Me either," she admitted. "Life's all about the next mission. It's kinda hard to stop and smell the roses."

"I haven't smelled the roses in a long time, either," Steve joked.

YN laughed and elbowed him in the side. "I'll make sure to buy you a bouquet for Valentine's Day."

"Isn't that my job?" he asked as he rolled onto his side and propped his head up with his hand so he could look at her.

She turned her head to meet his gaze. "It's the twenty-first century. Women can buy men roses if they want to."

"Do you?"

"Do I what?"

"Do you want to buy me roses?" he asked as he reached out and brushed a thumb over her cheek. "Back in my day, buying a dame flowers for Valentine's Day meant something."

"It still means something where I come from, too," she said with a shy smile. "So, yeah, I want to buy you roses."

He leaned over and brushed his lips over hers. They'd just recently moved into the kissing stage of their relationship and YN's nerves still tingled every time she felt his lips against hers. Part of her couldn't believe that she was kissing Steve Rogers, and the other part wondered why she'd never thought to do so before.

But then she remembered.

Peggy.

It had taken her a few weeks of research to figure out what had happened to the fiery SSR agent, but eventually she'd uncovered the reason why Peggy and Steve had never met. In her world, Peggy's brother Michael had died during the war, and that's what had prompted Peggy to leave her fiancé and join the military herself. In this world, however, Michael Carter had never died, and Peggy had married a man she didn't love.

It broke YN's heart that both Peggy and Steve had spent so much of their lives unhappy, but she couldn't help but be glad that she was now getting a chance to show Steve Rogers that he could have love in his life and still go out and save the world everyday.

The kiss between her and Steve started to get a little more heated, so she pushed him backwards and lay her body across his. She was scared she'd moved too fast, but when his arms wrapped around her back and pulled her even closer to him, she smiled against his lips and let the moment sweep her away.

How far the kiss would've gone was anyone's guess, but just as they started tugging on clothes, a blinding, bright light shot through the sky.

"Dammit, Thor," YN muttered as the God of Thunder appeared right beside her and Steve.

Thor waggled his eyebrows suggestively. "It appears I'm interrupting something. Should I come back in a few minutes? Or perhaps a few hours?"

YN groaned and tried to get up with as much dignity as possible. She held out a hand and helped Steve to his feet as well.

"What brings you back to Earth?" Steve asked as he tried to straighten out his clothes.

For the first time, YN took a good look at the god. There was something different about him, but she couldn't put her finger on it. That is, until he rested his arms on top of the weapon in front of him and gave her a big, goofy grin.

"That's Stormbreaker," she said as the breath caught in her throat. "How? Why?"

"I was fascinated by the stories you told of this weapon," Thor said as he picked up the axe and gave it a twirl. "I tracked down the Guardians and asked Tree if he'd be willing to help me recreate it. Eitri was a little harder to convince, but once I told him that it might prove handy in saving the universe from Thanos one day, he and the dwarves of Nidavellir were more than happy to forge it for me."

"You didn't let the energy of that star. . .?"

"Pass through me to light the forges?" Thor asked, shaking his head as if YN was crazy. His smile faded and he looked chagrined. "I might have."

"Thor," YN said as she buried her face in her hands. "I didn't tell you that story so you could go out and try to kill yourself. . ."

"Of course," he said, looking chagrinned. "Of course." His voice dropped to a whisper as he gazed at her earnestly. "Of course." 

"Why is this weapon more important than the hammer?" Steve asked as he reached out to touch it.

Thor pulled the axe back and gave Steve a look of warning. "I wouldn't do that if I were you. This weapon was meant for a king. No mere mortal can wield it."

YN coughed nervously and looked anywhere but at the two men in front of her.

"He can't. . . It's not possible. . . He's not worthy," Thor muttered.

A smug smile spread across YN's face. "Try it and see."

Steve held up his hands and laughed. "It's alright. I don't need to."

YN knew that it didn't matter what universe he was in—Steve Rogers would always be worthy. But she dropped the subject. "So, you didn't say why you had Stormbreaker forged."

"Ah, yes," Thor said, remembering why he'd come. "You said this weapon had the power to open the Bifrost. You were correct, by the way."

"Okay, so you just wanted a new toy?"

Thor shook his head. "Mjolnir wasn't strong enough to reopen the rift, but I thought," he paused and looked down at the axe in his hand, "this might just do the trick."

YN's face fell as she realized what he was saying. She turned to look at Steve, and thought she saw a brief flash of misery cross his face before he masked it and turned to her with a smile.

"It's your chance," he said with a definite nod. "You can finally go home."

She wanted to tell him that she didn't want to go, but her own insecurities had her doubting she'd seen the look of despair on his face a moment before. "You think I should go?"

He looked around for a moment before turning back to her. "This isn't your home."

Her heart broke for just a moment before she closed down her emotions and plastered a smile on her face. "Well, there's only one way to find out."

The three of them took the stairs down to the ground level and walked toward the river. Bruce's equipment had long been taken away, but YN remembered the exact spot where the rift had been months before. 

She and Steve stood back and waited while Thor called down the lightning and channeled it through Stormbreaker. The part of her that had been falling in love with Steve hoped that it wouldn't open, but Thor's power was amplified enough with the new weapon to reopen the rift.

As the tear in reality glimmered in the darkness, YN stared at it in disbelief. "I can't believe that worked."

"Me either," Steve admitted.

"I probably shouldn't leave this open too long," Thor said as he gestured for YN to go through.

YN turned to Steve. "I guess this is goodbye?"

He framed her face with his hands and kissed her forehead. "Take care of yourself."

Shock had rendered her speechless. Wasn't this the man that had just been ready to rip her clothes off not too long ago? Nodding dumbly, she stepped away from him and walked toward the doorway leading back home.

"Once I leave, I'll probably never come back," she said, hoping Steve would stop her at the last moment.

"You'll be missed," Thor said with a smile. "But I'm sure your world will be thrilled to have you back."

She gave Steve one last chance to say something, but he just smiled at her and nodded toward the rift. With one final wave, she stepped through and felt a rush of energy flow through her.

When her vision cleared, she found herself standing by the river, but instead of a brightly lit compound behind her, it was nothing more than a dark pile of rubble. "Home sweet home."

The rift closed, and she choked back a sob. She'd really done it. She'd left what could've been the love of her life to come back to. . .what? A demolished building and group of people that hadn't even bothered to go looking for her?

___________________

Months passed, but YN still didn't feel like she belonged in her world. She'd found what was left of the team living nearby and discovered that Scott had actually gone through the rift looking for her. The minuscule Ant-Man hadn't been detected by the other Bruce, and once Scott had found the world crawling with HYDRA agents and a newspaper with her picture and birth and death dates on it, he'd assumed the worse. She'd explained that she'd actually killed her doppelgänger, but she knew Scott had no way of knowing that.

She'd picked back up where she'd left off and rejoined the team in their efforts to piece the world back together. They'd all been interested in her story, but there was one person who was more interested than most.

It probably wasn't a good idea, but she found herself visiting old Steve at least once a week to recount some of her adventures fighting HYDRA with his doppelgänger. Being around him—even if it wasn't the version she'd started to fall for—was torture, but it was all she had, so she endured.

But Steve Rogers was an astute man, and he eventually saw through her evasions.

"You're not telling me everything," he announced one afternoon as he sat back and gave her the Eyebrows of Disappointment.

She shook her head with a tight-lipped smile. "Nope, that's it. Thor showed up with Stormbreaker and now I'm back."

"You're forgetting something, though." He waited to see if she'd confess before continuing. "I know myself fairly well."

"You were still the same man, Steve."

He held up a finger. "But I wasn't, was I? I didn't have Peggy in that world."

"No, but. . ."

"But nothing," he interrupted. "You may have only seen me as Captain America all those years we worked side by side, but I was still a man."

YN was confused. "What are you saying?"

"You're a beautiful woman," he admitted with a flirtatious smile. "I might have noticed that a few times over the years."

Her mouth dropped open. "Are you saying you had a crush on me?"

He held out his hand with his thumb and forefinger a few millimeters apart. "Maybe just a little one." Reaching out, he took her hand and gave it a squeeze. "What I'm saying is that I don't believe for one second that you and the other Steve were just friends."

She felt embarrassment wash over her as she remembered the last heated embrace she'd shared with the other version of him. "We never. . .you know. . .I mean. . .if you were wondering."

"Then's he's as big of an idiot as I am," he said with a laugh before his face grew serious. "Did you love him?"

"I could have," she admitted aloud for the first time. "I think I wanted to."

"Then you need to go back."

She shook her head. "I can't. The rift is closed."

"How'd you get it open to begin with?" he asked as if she were stupid. "Call Thor and tell him you need a favor."

"I can't just call Thor. . ."

"Fine, then," he interrupted as he struggled to his feet and walked across the room. "I'll do it."

She wasn't sure what was happening, so she stayed in her seat and watched as Steve fished around for something in a drawer, all the while muttered about self-sacrificing idiots.

"Aha," he said as he pulled out an electronic device and waved it at her. "Found it. I'll just send Thor a message and he'll be here in just a second."

YN wanted to stop him, but she couldn't. _What if Steve was right, and the version of him on the other side missed her as much as she missed him? _ A sinking feeling settled into her gut. _What if he didn't?_

"Okay, that's done," Steve announced as he took her hand and tugged until she stood up. "Let's go wait for him on the lawn. I don't want him to ruin my carpet."

By the time they made it outside, Thor was waiting for them with a huge smile on his face. YN had forgotten that this version of the God of Thunder had regrown his hair and added a few pounds around the middle, but he seemed as jovial as always, so she assumed he was happy.

"What can I do for you, my friends?" Thor asked.

"YN needs you to take her back to the Compound and open a hole in reality so she can go be with the love of her life."

"I never said he was. . ."

"Nonsense," Steve said as he waved away her denial. "Stop being so damn stupid."

"What if you're wrong?" she blurted out, finally giving voice to the doubt that was slowly starting to eat her alive.

"Ten bucks says he's sitting by that damn river moping around like a lovesick fool." He saw that YN was still questioning herself. "You're his Peggy, YN. Trust me on this."

YN gave him a hug and thanked him. "I'll miss you. I've really enjoyed our talks these last couple months."

"Don't get all weepy-eyed on me. And tell that fool he owes me one."

She said her goodbyes and held onto Thor as he teleported them back to the Compound.

"Where was this rift again?" he asked.

YN showed him the spot and stood back as he called forth his power and reopened the hole in reality.

"I'm probably going to be in so much trouble for this," she muttered as she waved at Thor and stepped through.

Before she had a chance to reorient herself, she was wrapped in a strong embrace that felt all-too familiar. With a relieved sob, she buried her face in his shoulder and held on as tightly as she could.

"I've been kicking myself in the ass since I let you walk through that damn thing," he murmured into her ear.

"It's a great ass," she said with a watery laugh. "I never should have left."

"What changed your mind?" he asked as he pulled back just enough to look her in the eye.

"A wise old man knocked some sense into me," she told him. "He kept mumbling on about self-sacrificing idiots that are too stubborn for their own good."

"I guess I owe him one," Steve said with a laugh.

"That's what he told me to tell you."

"He's got a few years on me, so I guess he'd know what's best. Right?"

She nodded.

"The world's still a mess," he warned her.

"The world's always a mess."

"You won't miss home?"

Pulling his face closer to hers, she kissed him with all the love she had in her heart. "I am home."

** _~ The End ~_ **

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_Author's Note: Thank you for reading Day 362 of my writing challenge! I hope you enjoyed it! I'm so sad to be saying goodbye to this series! I had no idea when I started it what would happen with Endgame, but I'm glad I left it vague enough that I could tie in parts of the movie. What did you think of her decision? Were you shocked she went back to her world? I'd intended for her to go back all along, but after Endgame, I realized it would be a great excuse to get her to stay with the version of Steve she'd met on the other side. This story didn't get as much time to develop as some of my other Miniseries which is why most of the parts are so long, but I doubt anyone is complaining! But the real question is—which reality is her domain? The world she grew up in, or the one where she found love? I look forward to your comments, and if you enjoyed this story, please consider reblogging!_


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